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Interviews
Thanks to evenrobins for providing most of these interviews. Interview with Chuck Dixon (Robin #1-#100, creator of Stephanie) on Sequential Tart, June 2000 link to interview here ST: What else is planned for the teen wonder this year? CD: A team-up with Connor Hawk is coming soon as well as complications with Stephanie (Spoiler) Brown. Teen romances seldom go smoothly and they're in for some rocky times. There's also a Robin 80 Page Giant this summer which guest stars Black Canary and Wildcat and introduces a brand new villain. The art is by Diego Barreto, the son of Eduardo Barreto. And he's terrific! ST:I really like The Spoiler! I think you've done such a remarkable job portraying her and her plight! Will we see more of her? Are there any plans for another one-shot or limited series? CD: I have a proposal in for a limited series with Steph. It's awaiting a place on the schedule. She appears in a big way in the above mentioned Robin Giant. (Note: This proposal clearly never got off the ground) Chuck Dixon Interveiwed at Unofficial Spoiler Website interview available here Sean: Tell us a little about the creation of the Spoiler? Did you ever think she'd become the fan favorite that she is now? And why hasn't there been at least a mini-series for her yet? Chuck: I joked with the editors when I put her into her first story that she'd probably become popular since I only had her in mind as a plot device for a single story. Heck, Wolverine was a one-off character in a string of forgettable Hulk opponents. And the Silver Surfer was only created so Galactus would have someone to talk to. A Spoiler mini will have to wait until she's no longer pregnant. But I'd love to do one. Sean: And what about Stephanie Brown? Chuck: Her whole reason for becoming the Spoiler was to get back at her dad. Her reason for continuing to put on the mask and cape is to be near Robin. She's a teenager. That's enough motivation for her...for now. Comicon interviews Jon Lewis (Robin #100-120) link to evenrobins page quotes are from Who is Spoiler? She’s Stephanie Brown, about the same age as Tim Drake. She and Tim now know about one another’s “secret identities”. Stephanie’s father is the Cluemaster, a second-rate supervillain and perfectly rotten guy. Her Mom is a pharmaceutical addict in recovery, who has a good job as a nurse. How has Spoiler’s relationship with Robin changed over the past few years? I guess it’s sort of solidified– they both feel like they’re in it “for real” now. They’re in that unique teenager state of feeling like they’re discovering THE REAL THING for the first time. The fact that they know each other’s identities and even work together sometimes as Robin and Spoiler has been a good thing in some ways for Tim - for the first time he has someone in his line of work who’s like a peer instead of an older sibling or a Dad. It’s kind of unified his Robin life and his normal life. But not having those halves compartmentalized has its downside, too. There are reasons for keeping your work life and private life separate. As for Steph, Tim’s the first really good boyfriend she’s had, and the first person she’s come to trust so totally that she can talk to them about anything. But she feels like the rest of the “Batman Family” don’t approve of her being Spoiler, and she wonders whether Tim agrees with them deep down and isn’t telling her. The subject of molestation and abuse is one that a lot of people shy away from and do not feel comfortable tackling. What, if any, reservations did you have about revealing this aspect of Spoiler’s past? I just wanted to write it as well as I possibly could, and in a way that was really true to THIS SPECIFIC SITUATION - not a symbol for all instances of molestation, and not a “statement” on the issue. The story itself is very sensitive to Stephanie, but though nothing awful is shown it is an awful story emotionally to read - or I suspect it is. I know that after writing it I had a black cloud of depression over my head for two or three days. Why is the time right now for Steph to talk about this childhood trauma? Because there are certain questions about it that she now suddenly knows she will never get the answers to. Things she was putting off investigating that now she’ll never get a chance to know. I’m sorry to be so vague, but the catalyst for her thinking about this part of her past right now is an event I don’t want to ruin for the readers beforehand. What inspired this story? It just seemed very obvious to me, when I saw that Stephanie grew up with a small-time crook for a father and an addict for a mother, that this child would have been exposed to really inappropriate situations because of the world her parents were inhabiting, and the other adults they would have had around them. This is the kind of environment in which these things happen. The parents are too wrapped up in their own nonsense to look closely at the kind of “friends” they’re surrounding themselves with. Looking at the facts of Stephanie’s background, I just felt, unfortunately, that it was very very likely that this was part of it. You can see that this is not something I’ve just whimsically pulled out of a hat from the fact that I laid the groundwork for it in a brief flashback sequence back in issue 102. How is Robin going to react to this news? How will this change their relationship? At first it upsets him terribly, makes him ashamed to be male and makes him want to find and pulverize the person responsible. Then he starts to suspect that this might be what a real relationship is all about, this sharing of everything with one another. Ultimately he feels closer to her than before. What are the biggest challenges to writing this issue? Like I said, trying to be true to this specific situation with these specific people, and not “make a statement” about an issue. However, there are a couple things I did put in there for purely rhetorical purposes. I felt I needed to point out the depressingly high percentage of women and girls who have experienced something like this, that it is unfortunately not a rare phenomenon. Also, sometime early this year I read a bit in the entertainment section of the newspaper about how the season finale of that show “Felicity” had been scrapped, because it had Felicity being sexually assaulted. The producers asked for a totally new episode, and released a press statement saying “we felt that after all this character has achieved for herself professionally and personally, to reduce her to nothing more than a victim of rape would be totally unacceptable.” I found that sentiment so utterly disgusting, this idea that rape strips a woman of her personhood and negates all her achievements. It stuck in my craw. Months later, when I wrote Robin #111, I just had to put it in. There’s a scene where Steph and Tim are in a diner, and there’s a TV on in the background showing the equivalent of Entertainment Tonight, and there’s a newsbit where a that press release is read almost verbatim. Obviously, that’s something that is in the story only because as the author I wanted to ridicule and revile it. But otherwise I tried hard to just tell the story, be inside the characters. A lot of people are going to look at this as a publicity stunt instead of looking at the character and her past. Her father was a criminal, her mother used drugs, she was around an unsavory lot … This is reality, not publicity. What problems, if any, did you have with the publishers of DC Comics in wanting to present this story? Did anyone try to persuade you not to go this direction? No. When I was starting on ROBIN, after I’d absorbed all the backstory on the characters, I talked to Matt and Pete about what Spoiler’s family history said to me. So this was no surprise to them. I was slightly nervous though, when I finally got around to addressing it in my 12th issue on the book, that Matt might have forgotten all about it in the intervening time and would read the script and be totally horrified. But he wasn’t. And the pages I’ve seen from Pete on the issue are amazingly nuanced and effective. As usual for me, I myself had no doubts about writing the story until after I finished, at which point I totally freaked out. “How dare I try to write this experience? What was I thinking?” I know people are going to have major misgivings about the story beforehand, as to why I would write it, but I think if they actually read it those misgivings will be allayed. Even though it won’t exactly be a pleasant read. Why do you think people view a female who has lived through abuse as “less” or “damaged?” Unfortunately there are these ancient traditions of ascribing any “filthy” aspects of sex to the woman, as if the supposed “spiritual damage” of sex all falls onto the woman. If you start from that attitude about CONSENSUAL sex, then obviously, FORCED intercourse is going to be seen as making a woman unretrievably polluted. Sadly, we’re coming from many centuries of several parallel traditions of viewing women as a kind of precious cattle. Sorting that baggage completely out will take time, and little ghosts of it linger in all of us, even in those who consciously and convictedly know better. To me the worst is how echoes of these values can lurk in a woman’s own feelings about herself. That’s so awful and unfair and insidious. I don’t mean to condemn the great cultural and spiritual traditions of the world, they’re all full of profound and beautiful things, but every last one of them has this atrocious disgusting blind spot when it comes to women. Why should people check this issue out? It’s an integral part of the series, continuing the paths of these characters in important ways, and there’s far more to the issue than just the part about the sexual abuse. It’s also a self-contained issue that’s constructed and told differently than any issue of ROBIN we’ve done yet. It has some damn funny parts, believe it or not. And it’s looking like it’s going to be one of Pete’s best issues yet, which is saying something. And it’ll be followed by the most ambitious story arc I’ve attempted. But people shouldn’t wait for #111 to check the series out. They should run right out and get the current issue right now, which begins an arc about gross monsters and teenage dating problems. Chuck Dixon Interviewed by the Young Justice Hangout 1999 ttp://members.tripod.com/%7EYJFAN/Interview_chuck_dixon_1998.htm interview available here Craig: Many people on the net and messageboards are looking at the relationship between Stephane and Robin, after the baby arrives are there any plans for Robin confiding his idenitity to Steph? Chuck: Not a chance. Robin's secret leads to the secret identity of too many of his friends and confidants. (Note: Steph eventually learns Tim's secret identity in Robin #87) Craig: Any chance on getting an inside tip on if Steph's baby will be a boy or girl? Have you decided a name yet? Chuck: We'll never see Steph's baby (at least until I'm off this continuity.) He or she is not a dangling plot element. The whole point of the story was that Steph made the compassionate decision in relasing the baby to be adopted. It's better that she not know anything about the child and get on with her life. (Note: After Chuck left DC, Steph's baby was referred to as female a couple of times by Dr. Thompkins and Batman) Craig: Lastly, I just wanted to thank you for doing this interview for the YJ: Hangout and wanted to ask if you have any thoughts on your personal favorite moments in the last year and what kind of plans do you have for 99? Chuck: Well, one of the highlights was the Spoiler pregnancy storyline. I'm really pleased with how that turned out. The Unofficial Spoiler Website Interviews Tom Lyle (Dectective Comics #647-649, co creator of Stephanie) ' interview available here Sean: Tell us a little about the inspiration behind the creation of the Spoiler. Did you ever think she'd be a popular as she is now? Tom: ''Well, Chuck writes full script, so the first I saw of Stephanie was in the Detective storyline that introduced her (Tec #647 was her first appearance). I did sketches based on the story and sent them to DC. They liked the costume. I liked her from the beginning since I (and I think Chuck does as well) see her as the female counterpart to Robin. I never thought that she'd be as popular as she is, but I'm very pleased. I wish that DC would give her her own book since Chuck and I own a piece of her. I wish they'd at least make a action figure out of her. Sean: Which comics or characters would you most like to have a chance to do? Tom: I would love to write and draw whatever future projects I do. I would like to do Daredevil, Huntress, Spoiler, Captain America, Iron Man and many others. Warlock is still at the top of my list right now since I have already invested a lot of time and emotion in him. ''Wizard'' Interview with Bill Willingham (Robin 121-131, War Games)' ''Our new Robin is not cut out for the job; they absolutely need Batman there for a while and I’d like to explore that. The whole idea of doing the teenage sidekick is to look at how someone learns to do that job; at least, that’s what’s interesting to me. At first Batman’s like, “How dare you break into the Batcave?” and then he thinks it over and says, “OK, you want the job. It’s yours.” One of the things I want to do is that we’re not going to look inside Batman’s head a lot. The only things we’re going to find out about him are the things he says to new Robin and to us on screen, because I want to keep his real motivations secret for a while. To use a military analogy, he’s the drill sergeant, so far all we know about him is that “Boy, he’s big, he’s mean, he screams a lot and nothing I do seems to be good enough for him.” Wizard #150 Article with Bill Willingham From Wizard magazine, issue #150: “She breaks into the Batcave with her homemade Robin suit all sewn up — which actually looks pretty bad,” says Willingham . “While Tim showed up ready for the job, Stephanie has a lot to learn.” Although Batman accepts Stephanie as the new Robin, his reactions remain ambiguous. Does he really think she’s right for the job, or is it just a ploy to lure Tim back to his post? “We’re not going to look inside Batman’s head because I want to keep his real motivations secret for a while,” explains Willingham. “All we know about him is from Stephanie’s point of view. He’s big, he’s mean, he screams a lot and nothing seems to be good enough for him.” Once training begins, Stephanie quickly realizes that running with the Bat isn’t all that easy. “Batman’s looking for her breaking point,” says Willingham. “Can she be provoked into losing it? The greatest challenges facing her will be psychological more than physical.” Worse than any villain she might face, Stephanie’s doubts threaten to defeat her. “It’s like being the first girl at West Point,” suggests Willingham. “She’s the fourth in what’s becoming a long line of Robins. Is she every bit as official as they were? Is she good enough for this job?” And, of course, the successes of her predecessor loom large over everything she does. “Bruce is constantly comparing her unfavorably to Tim,” says Willingham. “All through training, he’s saying things like ‘Tim mastered this in the second week and here you are in week three and you still haven’t got it.’ For a while, she’s definitely going to be under Tim’s shadow.” After her training has progressed, Stephanie still sticks close by her Dark Knight. “Stephanie is a Robin who, unlike Tim, absolutely needs Batman there for a while,” asserts Willingham. “The whole idea of doing a teenage sidekick is to look at how someone learns to be a hero. At least, that’s what’s interesting to me.” Yet, even with all the growing pains, there’s no question that Stephanie’s living a dream come true. “She comes into Robin with a sense that she’s been kind of mopey, but once she finally gets the big job, she brightens up and just has a wonderful time,” notes Willingham. Comicon interviews Bill Willingham '' He’s a comic book icon, the archetype of the teenage sidekick. I don’t think that iconic status will change, now that ‘he’ is becoming ‘she.’ Yes, the future of Spoiler was one of the pre-ordained events, before I was brought on board. Spoiler’s future was one of the things locked in before I came onto the series. I got to add one important development to the planned events, but I can’t reveal what that is yet. She needs to learn the job. One thing I didn’t like about the previous takes on Robin was that Tim came into the job already prepared for it, and as many critics have now pointed out to me, ad nauseum, Tim no longer needs Batman’s training and instruction. This made little sense to me. Robin should always, at its core, be the superhero in training. If he’s ready to be out on his own, what is he still doing in the Robin suit? So Spoiler needs to learn how to be Robin, and that is what I find compelling about this story. Everyone has past mistakes, current mistakes and future mistakes. No one ever gets to the point where they don’t make them … or if they do, why bother telling their stories? Perfect people are dull, boring, tedious and did I say dull? She wants the job. She wants it like a drowning man wants air. She isn’t planning on just dabbling in the superhero trade, until something better comes along. Damion Scott has perfectly captured her enthusiasm in her first appearance as Robin.'' What areas does she still need improvement in? All of them. Isn’t that fun? How tough was it for you to get to know Stephanie Brown and get into the Spoiler mindset? As tough as it is to get into any fictional character’s mindset. Teenage girls who fight crime on the sly don’t think like middle aged men whose crime-fighting days are long past … at least I hope they don’t. Then again, how many of us have actually put on gaudy clothes to go out and battle super criminals; or fought against sword-wielding barbarians in some forgotten kingdom; or hung out with talking animals? Writing in the various fantasy-adventure genres is all about getting into the mindset of fictional characters who bare very little resemblance to you. It’s not easy, but it beats shoveling dirt for a living. What is Spoiler’s mindset? Does she really take all this seriously or just have the wrong idea about what it means to be a true hero? How does one answer this question? In truth, anyone who puts on a costume to use ropes and sticks to fight gunmen has the wrong idea about what it means to be a true hero. Within the admittedly bizarre fictional conceits of a superhero universe, one presumes she better be taking this seriously. She’s the devoted one. She’s already convinced this is a job that needs doing. Tim is the one struggling with the level of his commitments to the cause. My template for writing female characters is simple: Design each as an individual character. None of my characters could (or should) be able to serve as a role model for whatever group they might be perceived as belonging to. In fact none of them should ever be perceived as representing any given gender, group or lifestyle, or I’ve failed miserably. How does Steph compare to Carrie from Dark Knight Returns? Well, since the Dark Knight takes place some unspecified number of years in the future, Carrie would still be an infant now, or not yet be born, so I would imagine Steph could easily take her in a fight. Geoff Johns Newsrama 2008 link to interview here "Since we’re going back years, a sidebar for a lot of you Spoilers fans – early on when I started talking with Dan about Flash, I remember him bemoaning the fact that they were planning on “killing” Spoiler, one of his, yes, favorite characters. Dan had just started and wasn’t the E-I-C yet and had no control over the Bat universe. He still misses Spoiler."